Rather than attempt a "dry January" or whatever I am going to attempt a "nearly dry 2018" this year, and since this is a financial forum I thought I would appropriate Buffett's "20-slot punchcard" to help me do it.

ie. 20 days of the 365 on which I can drink (anything, in any quantity) - very roughly 1 day in every 3 weeks.

The intention is to cut down on the weekly habit at home, but not the enjoyable social/ad hoc occasions, and keep the bulk of allowed days for the summer months.

So Day 1 - yesterday - is punched already. Day 2 is looking like next Sunday (a birthday party), and Day 3 doesn't need to be punched until 17 April (another birthday), maybe 14 February if the mood takes us.

This seems to be the right place to keep you all posted of progress ...

I rarely drink these days (On Christmas Day = 1 x glass champagne 2 x glasses red wine & New Years Eve = 3 x glasses red wine) and throughout the year it's an occasional Friday bottle of wine split with the missus.

I just like the better sleep and the not having to worry about Drink Drive limits (particularly here in Scotland) and with elderly relatives nearby it's handy to know you can nip round at any time.

I did have to find something that would replace in the lack of alcohol after work though and I tried (and still do try) various non alcoholic drinks to give me the placebo effect. Most (ok, all) alki free red wine is disgusting. Most alki free beers are terrible. Becks Blue however.....

..... is okay and is stocked by most pubs. It has the added benefit of looking like a bottle of real Becks which means if you're at a social event and keep your hand over the label, people don't try and persuade you to 'take a drink'. I drank it all night at our Christmas office party and it was quite cool being able to jump in the car and not have to worry about trying to get a taxi on a busy night.

Snorvey wrote:I just like the better sleep and the not having to worry about Drink Drive limits (particularly here in Scotland) and with elderly relatives nearby it's handy to know you can nip round at any time.

That is just about why I do drink. I do not sleep very well but with some 'Bearded bold John Barleycorn' I sleep well.

OTOH all the other benefits Snorvey mentions I entirely agree with and of course the lack of any sort of hangover.

I agree with the sentiments though and was thinking of trying the same myself.

I'd miss the Friday end of the week beers too much, and the Saturdays in Windsor...I don't drink at all during the week (being Sun-Thu nights inclusive) and never during the day So, 52 x 2 = 104 for weekendsSay an additional 30 for holidaysA mere 134 slots required - best round it up to a safe 150.

Dry January started 28th Dec in our house: 1 week down and four to go!

Actually, it's been pretty easy so far, including New Year's Eve: I found some root beer which made a pleasant change to cola or tonic water. Alcohol-free wines are, as Snorvey mentioned, on the whole, pretty unpalatable if you actually like wine, and I find the Becks Blue OK for one or two drinks, but then notice it's not quite right!

The other advantage of root beer is nobody is likely to nick your drink

Once January is done and dusted, I will probably resume normal consumption, but we'll see, as I'm also trying to up the regular exercise and alcohol the night before isn't really a motivator!

I did have to find something that would replace in the lack of alcohol after work though and I tried (and still do try) various non alcoholic drinks to give me the placebo effect.

Thanks for reminding me about the placebo effect because that's what I've used in the past when trying to give up drinking.

Yes, alcohol-free beer is pretty awful but not bad with lemonade or in my case, 0% Sprite. It tastes like shandy so quite nice.

Little tricks like mixing orange juice with other soft drinks and adding a few drops of Tabasco or Worcestershire sauce also tricks the taste buds into thinking they're having an expensive and strong cocktail.

I think it's not available in the UK, but if you like pastis (Ricard, Pernod etc) in France there's an alc-free yellow pastis drink called 'Pacific' that's really quite nice when mixed with other soft drinks.

Also, alc-free Spritz if you can get it.

Haven't tried alc-free wine since the 80s when I was invited to lunch by some Methodists. Tasted horrible. Straightforward grape juice is much nicer.

Snorvey wrote:I agree with the sentiments though and was thinking of trying the same myself.

Dod

I do wonder whether our children, or perhaps our children's children, will look upon our alcohol consumption in the same way we look upon our parents' cigarette consumption. We have our wedding anniversary and two family birthdays in January, so we will be doing dry February again this year (and perhaps dry October too).

dionaeamuscipula wrote:I do wonder whether our children, or perhaps our children's children, will look upon our alcohol consumption in the same way we look upon our parents' cigarette consumption. We have our wedding anniversary and two family birthdays in January, so we will be doing dry February again this year (and perhaps dry October too).

There's still wide range of kids growing up, at one end of the scale I know some teens who from aged 15 were going to house parties (or the woods, or the park), almost every weekend, and almost expecting to get drunk, and sometimes even parents that facilitate it, to other kids that can't stand the taste of any alcohol they've tried, so don't drink at all. There's lots of kids in the middle that range somewhere along that spectrum. And these are mostly middle class kids from middle class houses in middle class towns. Whether it's more or less prevalent than in my youth, probably less, but that's from my point of view, where from 15 it was the odd house party, and the big brother sneaking you a bottle of something at the village barn dance, to Friday nights being older mate drives home->offie->video rental shop->home, to being a regular at the pub aged 17, and the landlady knew it.

Since my post on 2 January I have tried abstention.. I know I was drinking too much over the so called festive season and this thread has got me thinking. I was drinking most evenings and often wakening with some sort of hangover. Living on my own it is only too easy to slip in to that routine and no doubt alcohol tastes good but in my case it is the old saying, 'three drinks are too many and four are not enough'.

The first night I hardly slept a wink but still managed to function the next day and since then have slept well and of course wakening without a hangover is great and I feel just a little bit smug. I feel no urge to drink; it was I think just a case of changing the mindset and I have not 'signed the pledge'.

UncleIan wrote:Whether it's more or less prevalent than in my youth, probably less, but that's from my point of view, where from 15 it was the odd house party, and the big brother sneaking you a bottle of something at the village barn dance, to Friday nights being older mate drives home->offie->video rental shop->home, to being a regular at the pub aged 17, and the landlady knew it.

Reminds me of a mate's 18th birthday bash in a local pub. Another mate asked the Landlord if he could get an extension for a night in a couple of week's time.

Alcohol seems to have a special place in our culture, despite its destructive side-effects. It's addictive (to some) and an easily learned habit to a large number of people.

I put myself in the "habit" group: watching TV last night I was drinking tonic water - just because when we watch TV I would normally have a glass of something... If we're doing something different, there seems to be no compulsion, but situations where I would normally drink create a "vacuum" in the absence of that glass.

I was too lazy to take up smoking (the faff of remembering to carry cigarettes etc!) but I'm starting to realise why ex-smokers take up knitting!

I enjoy drinking with food and I enjoy drinking in the pub with friends or family where alcohol acts as a wonderful social lubricant.

Sometimes I drink too much and get drunk although I never get falling over drunk or aggressive when drunk.

I am doing dry January at the moment, it is no hardship, I am doing it mainly in solidarity with Mrs RS.

If I look back at my life many if not most of my enjoyable memories are somehow involved with alcohol; parties, weddings, trips with friends all involve alcohol and have been all the more enjoyable for that. If I was to cut out alcohol from my life completely I have little doubt I would find my life less enjoyable.

I have also witnessed the dark side of alcohol, I went to the funeral of a good friend last year, he died from liver failure, he was 51 and left a wife and two kids, yet one of my fondest memories of him is of spending several hours in a small square in Verona on a beautiful July day, sharing about four bottles of delicious Soave with breadsticks and prosciutto.

I have another friend who I have known for 40 years who is an alcoholic and again all my fondest memories of spending time with him involve alcohol. When he became dry our friendship foundered, I accept some responsibility for that but we found it more difficult to interact without the facilitation of alcohol.

It could be argued that I have a problem with alcohol or alternatively that alcohol has enhanced my life. I don't know but the truth probably lies somewhere in between.

vrdiver wrote:I put myself in the "habit" group: watching TV last night I was drinking tonic water - just because when we watch TV I would normally have a glass of something... If we're doing something different, there seems to be no compulsion, but situations where I would normally drink create a "vacuum" in the absence of that glass.

I was too lazy to take up smoking (the faff of remembering to carry cigarettes etc!) but I'm starting to realise why ex-smokers take up knitting!

I packed in the evil fags 42 years ago, having smoked for only a couple of years (but having become quite alarmingly hooked during that short time**). The only quitting method in those days was cold turkey (no nicotine patches, no e-cigs, no gum), and the usual advice was to choose your moment very carefully if you were going to try and kick the weed. Stressful periods were probably not going to be a good idea - and thanks to a horrible job and a miserable failing marriage, it took me three attempts, but I got there the third time, whoopee. The withdrawal twitches were worst after two weeks, and then again after two months, and after that it was a matter of staying faithful to the cause and avoiding smoky rooms. (Easier said than done in a secondary teaching environment, where everybody lit up during mid-morning break....)

But moving back on topic: A major difference was that everyone agreed, even in those days, that tobacco was "Always A Bad Thing", and you can't say the same about alcohol today. (Nor can you easily avoid social drinking situations - they have to be handled somehow.) I've been cutting back my evening glass of wine habit with a few self-rules - never fill a glass before 7 pm or after 9 pm, never buy more than one bottle of wine at a time, and perhaps most successfully, use smaller glasses, dammit. Don't think I'm ready for 20 booze nights a year, but 100 might be a realistic starting point.

Research by Drinkaware looked at the drinking patterns of 18 to 75-year-olds in the UK and found nearly two in five (38%) who had drunk alcohol in the last year said they had done so to forget their problems at least some of the time.

Nearly half (47%) said they had done so to cheer themselves up when in a bad mood, while 58% said it helps them to cope with the pressures of day-to-day life.

I think the headline is just a wee bit dramatic, but I guess with a quick drink after work maybe leading to 2 or 3, it's easy to let things spiral.

[Edit] I'm sure I read somewhwere that the youth are actually spurning drink these days - it's uncool to be drunk apparently.

Yeah, it does terrible things to your splatter score on Call of Duty. "Mine's a Red Bull and Spike, please. Bouncing off the ceiling, and I haven't touched a drop."

Mind you, I believe it's also statistically proven that young'uns tend to hang out together less often than they used to. Or at least, on public places. No more hiding behind the bus shelter with a can of cider. Too busy swapping naked selfies and getting a FOMO complex from Facebook in their bedrooms. I'm not sure that's really better?